CSR vision

CSR vision

Corporate Social Responsibility

At Sligro Food Group, corporate social responsibility and commercial returns go hand in hand. For us, corporate social responsibility is a key element of professional and sustainable business practice. That stems from the roots of our family business, with its stock market listing. As a family business, you simply want to do the right thing by the people who work for you and the wider world, now and with a view to the future. It is part of our 'green blood' as it were.

We measure the added value of Sligro Food Group by more than financial performance alone. As well as our financial results, issues relating to food (food safety, health, availability), energy, the environment and society also play an important role for us. Corporate social responsibility sits naturally in our integrated business vision, whereby we create value at the economic (Profit), environmental (Planet) and social (People) levels. With this in mind, we view the OECD guidelines as a natural reference framework for our corporate social responsibility policy.

One business, one policy

As a centrally managed organisation, we pursue a single sustainability policy for the Group. Our core themes, ambitions and targets accordingly apply to all our activities in the Netherlands and in Belgium. There may be differences in the direction and method we use to achieve this in each country.

Stakeholder dialogue

Because sustainability is becoming more and more selfevident, we are seeing more consultation and agreement between market players in the dialogue with stakeholders. In turn, these players consult deeper in the chain. Because more and more NGOs are willing to take a wider view of sustainability, we are talking with them to improve the balance between economic and social and environmental return. This is not only effective; together we are making great strides.

CSR certification

Last year, we said that we were having more and more reservations about the added value of CSR certification. Our larger Foodservice customers had previously been looking at certification or quality models to provide certainty as a form of guarantee. This prompted us to keep our FIRA ‘bronze registration’. We are now seeing this trend continue and we and our chain partners are taking a specific approach to joint sustainability targets. This is a good development because it means that sustainability becomes intertwined in business. This is why FIRA registration no longer offers us added value, and we have not renewed it.

Affiliations and administrative involvement

In addition to being a member of sector-specific organisations, as a major player in the food market, we also have a duty to help with administrative functions and to demonstrate an active involvement in these organisations. Details of our memberships since 2016 can be found below (in Dutch).